[77HANDMEDOWN]

Well I stole it from my Dad. My Dad bought my Mom a 77 T/A new in may of 77. They both gifted the title to me over this summer. The original title was actually dated on May 29th 1977 (their 8th wed anniversay) which I think is kinda cool! Anyway they moved to the Dallas area a while back and lived with us while looking for a house. ABOUT 2.5 MONTHS! I kept the Trans Am in the garage while they got settled in their new house. Thank God they (my Dad) has a little hording in his blood cuz the Trans Am would not fit in the garage of their new home for quite a while. I have always wanted this car since I was a kid. I offered him cash several times at whatever his price was and never got anything more than blank looks. So I held it hostage and now it is mine.

It is an auto, l78 400 car, no t-tops and manual windows and door locks. I love the options. If it were a w72 or y82 I would feel bad about moding it. This car has never not had a place in the garage. It has been driven in rain only very very little. It was always a back up car except for when my sister and I each drove it briefly in high school. This by no means means that it is a cream puff or does not need work.

Like I said my sister and I both drove it in high school. I remember my sister and I taking it out one time when she was 13 after she had conviced me burglers were trying to get in the house while baby sitting me. The "burglers" were her friends around the corner we picked up after "getting away". I just remember being scared, a bunch of dudes taking turns ripping donuts in my dads car and ratting her out later that night to my parents.

There is not rust at all around the rockers, rear frame rails or really anywhere for that matter accept for one little spot on the drivers side where I believe the windshield has leaking down near the dash. I have crawled all under it with a flashlight and all the little weep holes to drain water have zero debris in them at all. Super clean car.

Here are some pics






So the plan......
If it is in stock form it just won't be fun for me. I have driven lots of cars both in the American car world and exotic european cars. I am a 14 year BMW master tech. so if the brakes and suspension can't be beaten on hard and take it then it will just sit.


Brakes suspension:

Well one of the first things I did was replace replace the leaking real wheel cylinders. It was CHEAP and not it is safe. With the old dry rotted bfg's the rears locked at will after that.

Now it has YO 17" snowflakes. 285/40/17 rear and 255/45/17 nittos up front.

I also have a ptfb gt kit. The front is installed but the rear is not yet. I added or upgraded some things to the GT kit. I went with all delrin front bushings, tubular upper arms, the tall ball joints and adjustable koni's all the way around. I also opted for the rear composite mono leaf with delrin shackle bushings and sub frame connectors.

Currently the rear axle is out of it getting welded and I am picking it up tomorrow and dropping it off to have it powder coated. I figured to it all while it is apart so I am either putting it back in with s10 rear disc or LS1 f-body rear disc. Also doing superior axles and and different gear ratio when it goes back together. Do it right the first time and never touch it again. It has been out of service for about 2 weeks and looks like it will be at least another 3 or 4 before I can get it back on the ground. I DO NOT like that feeling of not being able to hop in and drive it.

Engine/Drivetrain:
The plan is a big ol motor and an overdrive. The stock engine in this car is just that. Stock. It is all 77 Trans Am under there. I want to shop an early 70's block and build a big stroker and moth ball the 400. It is a 557 block and will only be stock once. For now it runs fantastic but slow. The oil pressure gauge does bounce around a bit though. Against my norm I don't beat on the engine to hard.

I really want to put an overdrive in it. I really like the 4l80e. Efi always gets such a good rap of good driveability and what not. Man how people take electronic transmissions for granted though. Who cares about efi I need my gears computer controlled.

I really want the exterior and the interior to stay as stock appearing as possible. To do anything like a not factory shifter or non factory gauges is a sin for me in this perticular car. Ofcoarse there are the usual trim items that are broken or worn and the carpet has a small tear but the interior looks great in its used condition. Can't even think about paint and body work til years down the road.

Sorry for the long read. Hope you guys enjoy. Like I said I work for a very large BMW dealership and have know people that have all sorts of high end cars that were just paid for with a check. I know there are lots of other cars like this one hear that have stories, historys and memories you can write checks for. Thanks for reading

[77HANDMEDOWN]

[77HANDMEDOWN]

[Old Goat 67]

Not many guys as lucky as you! Great start. Good history.

You passed the initiation test of putting in pics!

Consider hydro-boost for the brake system. Best mod I ever did. Like throwing out the anchor.

Charles

[Txbobcat]

Thats a good looking car and a good story

[Torquewar]

Thats a great start to a nice car,and i like your thinking on the mods now and down the road. It all takes time but soo worth it in the end.
Keep the progress reports coming!.

[Hammertime Mike]

Nice car to be able to keep in the family. We like pictures,keep em coming !!

[MescaBug]

Nice and clean car!! Congrats

But you forgot the most important pic.... ENGINE SHOT PLEASE!!!

[77HANDMEDOWN]

I will try to get some engine shots as well as some shots of some interesting paper work my Dad has always kept. I have a paper that shows the mileage when purchased and also has what I believe to be the dealer inventory stock number. Cool I think.

Lots of typos in my first post. It was late and I was tired. I was trying to say in the end that I see people just buy new cars with crazy price tags. I really love cars with a story or history that you CAN'T just buy. Even if it is some busted pile you just picked up and you are currently making the story while working on it with your kid or Dad like I did with my 79 Camaro in high school.

Anyway I picked up my axle housing today. I had the axle tubes stitch welded to the center section. Pic to come soon! They did it in a jig and it came out nice. Over kill or not necessary? Maybe but certain aspects of this car will be overdone. Not for bragging rights or for show. I don't know anyone personally that knows any different anyway. I know though. I think I will end up painting it. I can spend the money saved on powder coating on higher quality parts elsewhere going back together like better pads/rotors or axle studs that makes more of a real difference.

[bigborehunter]

When you say stitch weld, do you mean you had the plug welds closed up? I know its a problem on the 12 bolts.

[teeraven]

Good looking car, and nice story. I agree they aren't much fun stock. And I also applaud you for embedding pics lol.

[77HANDMEDOWN]

Originally Posted by bigborehunter

When you say stitch weld, do you mean you had the plug welds closed up? I know its a problem on the 12 bolts.

I had the tubes welded to the housing/center section.

[77HANDMEDOWN]

engine bay pics...

It is funny how tangled and cluttered everything is. I hope for a MUCH cleaner look down the road. All I can think about right now is suspension, brakes and drivetrain though. Tunnel vision I guess.

pics seem kinda small for some reason. My host is being werid tonight.

[Sirrotica]

Nice car and an interesting read, do yourself a huge favor and take those jack stands that are made out of a piece of exhaust pipe from under that car and throw them in the garbage. I had a pair of them that collapsed without any warning holding up a car that wasn't as heavy as yours is. Fortunately it happened at night after I had closed up my business and no one was injured, the car was gutted and I was in the process of installing a roll cage and had virtually very little weight on them. They're an accident waiting to happen.

Your build sounds like it was well thought out, I used to autocross 3 different Trans Ams, a 73 which I still have, a 76 455, and a 77 SE bandit. The cars won most every time I entered them, so you should be fine running yours hard without problems. The 73 is my own car and the 76 and 77 s were customer cars I did modifications on and then borrowed them to check out how the modifications worked out in real world conditions.........

Putting 3.23-3.55 gears in your car will work out well with a 4L80E transmission and is my choice also in a build I'm working on for a 84 GP street driven Winston Cup clone I'm working on with a 455. In my opinion it may be a little heavier than a 200/700 transmission, but was designed to take way more abuse than the other two transmissions were from the start. We used the 76 T/A with warmed over 455 to drag race also and the 8.5 rear axle gave no problems even with slicks on it. I have had the spot welds break on the axle tubes before so good call on strengthening the welds there. If the posi unit has high miles you might consider a aftermarket unit as they tend to loose clutch efficiency as they get miles on them.

Headers and true duals will help quite a bit along with re-curving the distributor and doing some work on the Q jet and opening up the back of the scoop for some cooler air until you get around to putting in your bigger engine.

If you update the engine bay with a larger engine make sure to leave the 6.6 liter decals on the shaker, keep E'm guessing because most of the competition doesn't know squat about Pontiac engines........LOL

[77HANDMEDOWN]

I am embarrassed to say how old those jack stands are. It is hard to find jack stands with flat tops though and not the u shaped top. I have seen some for sale on websites that are custom but they are over a hundred dollars. Cheaper than a stand failure I
guess.

I am shopping for gears right now. I am stuck between a 3.23 and 3.42 ratio. There seems to be WAY more options in 3.42.
I want the overdrive to be able to short shift it and keep it in the torque. Same theory as keeping a rev happy motor wound up but opposite. I think it will end up a 3.42 but still open to options. It is hard to do one thing. I know rear gear, converter
and cam all have to at least halfway match. I don't want a the 3.23 if can't get into overdrive at a decent speed with out surging or bucking. I also don't want
to just blow right through 1st because the 3.42 or 3.55 is TO low. I haven't lost sleep over this stuff yet but close.

You also mentioned headers. I want big torque from a big stroke. 4.375 or 4.5. I am really leaning towards RARE manifolds though. I want the
car fairly quiet for what it is and also want under hood temps to not fry everything. I figure if I build big cubes then choke it
down on the exhaust side I could have the power and torque of a smaller displacement but still not run headers and have a tamer combo. I have seen
combos like that here on PY that seem awesome. I have had cars with headers before but this car I want to stay with manifolds. At least that is the plan for now but things always change as you go.

[rockin78T/A]

How about the wheels? I've seen them on websites, is the quality there? Also, what about suspension? Do you have stock springs all around, because the car sits nice with those wheels, I put a set of Ames stock springs in the front of mine, and now it looks like a 4x4 truck!

[77HANDMEDOWN]

Hey you are in The Colony huh...that is right down the street from me. We are in west Frisco.

The yearone snow flakes are nice. They have a nice clear coat or polish to them so they clean very easy and do not hold stuff in the pores of the alum. There is also not a bunch of casting flash or slag on the back of the webs in the wheels. The factory snowflakes are in the attic and when you see them with no tires on them they have casting lines all over. The yo's are just smooth all the way around. Seems like a strong wheel. That are heavier but they are bigger too. Only regrets with the yo's is that you can't get an 11 or so incher for the rear and maybe the front offset. I think the front offset will be better looking when I get the fender flares back on though.

The shot you see with the car in the garage from the side is with the ptfb springs up front and the stock leafs on the rear. I am sure the stock rears have sagged. Although as my Dad pointed out a couple of times these cars sat high and with a neg rake. I am in the process of putting on composite rear leafs from Custom Works. I am hoping it keeps the rear right where it is at and that the front settles a little lower.

I can't hang with the truck tire, reverse rake, 4x4 look. I always like my cars low.

[Sirrotica]

I am embarrassed to say how old those jack stands are. It is hard to find jack stands with flat tops though and not the u shaped top. I have seen some for sale on websites that are custom but they are over a hundred dollars. Cheaper than a stand failure I
guess.

Take a grinder and knock the ears off, however I'm not sure why you don't want the U shaped tops because they can keep the car from sliding if it gets jarred or knocked sideways (read safety feature).

You also mentioned headers. I want big torque from a big stroke. 4.375 or 4.5. I am really leaning towards RARE manifolds though. I want the
car fairly quiet for what it is and also want under hood temps to not fry everything. I figure if I build big cubes then choke it down on the exhaust side I could have the power and torque of a smaller displacement but still not run headers and have a tamer combo. I have seen combos like that here on PY that seem awesome. I have had cars with headers before but this car I want to stay with manifolds. At least that is the plan for now but things always change as you go.

I've had headers on many of my own cars as well as customer many cars and they don't fry anything under the hood, just get a shield for the starter if you stay with the stock style starter. Exhaust heat isn't just a problem with headers because GM engineered starter shields to be used with stock exhaust also. That would be the only item that is affected by header heat in my own experience. A mini starter has more clearance so they usually have no negative effects from headers.

The only time I'd run manifolds over headers would be on a restored show car or a class that you had to run cast manifolds (stock appearing drag classes, etc.). Your always leaving power on the table if you don't have the most efficient exhaust you can get under the car. BTW, efficient doesn't have to be loud and obnoxious, I guess many people associate headers with loud or/and obnoxious and that isn't the case of a properly engineered system installed with properly chosen parts.

In the end it's your car and your choices, just stating my experience within the parameter of your questions.

[rockin78T/A]

Hey we're neighbors. I'm right off 121. My 78 needs about all the same work your doing to your 77. Maybe I'll drop it off sometime, it looks like you definatley know what your doing!! Damn, I wish I would of found out you lived close to me before, sold by 89 bmw 535 last year, got tire of working on it.

[77HANDMEDOWN]

Here is the primed and painted axle. Really glad I did not do the powder coat. I have about 10 bucks in this paint job plus if it ever gets nicked up I can just shoot it to touch it up. I THINK I am settled on the 3.42 gear to go back in. With a 4l80e it is like having a 2.56 in overdrive. Plus the lower I go now the more prone I will be to want to hurry up and get the OD going. I have already been browsing them on craigs.

I did find an AWESOME gear speed calculator app. Like every gear ratio calculator under the sun it shows rpm, mph blah blah blah at a given speed. But it also shows 2 different combos side by side and even graphs them. You can view the graphs overlayed on each other for say a th350 with a 2.41 and a 4l80e with a 3.42 in every gear. I know you can do stuff like this in excel but I can't. Plus this is on your phone. I think it is pretty cool.

This is just an example of what it looks like and not my actual info.